Colours of Crystal
by Ink and tea-leaves
Summary: Sisika Jade was an art student on Lat'vi, untill, due to pure chance and a piece of good luck, she discovers Ballybran Crystal. Now a crystal singer, it soon becomes clear that there's something about this girl, who can sense all the colours of crystal.


_Hey all! Here is my story for the Crystal Singers. It is set a few years after Killashandra joins, so many characters will remain the same. _

_Feel free to review! (In fact, please do! ;-P )_

_Enjoy, StarInTheSuperNova _

**Plot/blurb:**** Sisika Jade was a regular art student on Lat'vi, until, by pure chance, she ran into a set of Ballybran Crystal that was being installed in the manual of one of the organs. The crystal entranced her, and she became determined to become a crystal singer. But when she gets to Ballybran, she finds that her artistic backround mixed with a love for music might have given her more than a diverse range of skills. She finds that she can sense and find her way to all different colours of crystal. As her skills slowly show themselves, Sisika realises that this affinity with the different colours of crystal could give her more than a knack of finding the right shades... **

Sisika strode down the isle of the spaceport, her leather carisac slung over one shoulder. She noted the signs to the cruiser shuttle, and walked purposefully in the direction indicated_."Passengers departing Lat'vi spaceport on the shuttle to cruiser Space Crab, please hasten to gate 13, to be cleared for detachment. Repeat, shuttle to cruiser Space Crab is due to detach."_ Sisika cursed under her breath, and broke into a run. She reached the gate as the green light above the archway indicating freedom to pass turned orange, showing that there were five minutes to closure.

"Yes, yes, I'm here, I'm here." She hurried up to the archway, and pressed her wrist unit into the depression at its base. The screen lit up with the words _'Sisika Jade, Member of Lat'vi Higher Guild of Arts, Citizen of the Lat'ori system'_, followed by her date of birth, planet of origin (Lat'vi) and other assorted details. She looked up at the security attendant.

"Yes yes, cleared, and you're bloody lucky to have made it on time." Sisika thanked the guard with a wink, and strode through the archway. She sprinted down the corridor, and dashed through the portal at the end as it closed behind her. The man on the other side grinned at her.

"So you made it Sisika. Well, I must say, I'd half hoped you wouldn't, even though I know I shouldn't."

"I told you not to get your hopes up Tyler. I'm going through with this."

Tyler nodded sadly."So you said. Well, let's not keep these innocent people waiting any longer with our banter." He strode away from her onto the waiting shuttle, and she followed him. Ten or so rows of six seats stretched back down the shuttle, and Sisika spotted two crystal singers among the sixty assorted passengers, both no doubt returning from a vacation on scenic Lat'vi. Whatever her planet may be, dull and plain were two words that could never be used to describe it's assortment of volcanic islands and vast mountain ranges. For a moment, she was seized by a wild desire to rush down the isle and ask the singers for information, any information at all, about the planet she was headed to. For only crystal singers could tell her all that she wanted to know about elusive Ballybran. Reluctantly, she turned her back on the singers, and followed Tyler into the cockpit.

Sisika slung her bag into the co-pilot's seat and engaged several switches on the roof of the cockpit, before following her bag into the co-pilot seat. There was the familiar hum of the docking clamps disengaging, and then the shuttle dipped slightly and reversed off and out of the docking bay. It swerved around in a smooth arc, before the engines really kicked in and thrust the sleek black Space Bug upward. The regular G-Force pushed Sisika back against her seat as they soared higher, and held her there until they broke free of Lat'vi's atmosphere and gravitational pull, and were coasting through the inky blackness of space, the cruiser Space Crab clearly visible some distance off.

Tyler flicked a few more switches, and locked a gear onto tracking, and turned with a grin to Sisika.  
"So what d'you recon? Still determined?" Sisika nodded, and he smiled at her sadly. "You know I'm never gonna fly as fast without you as a co- pilot? How the heck am I supposed to reach the wing-flaps switches?"

Sisika laughed, and replied

"You seem to manage fine when it's Colette co-piloting with you. Or does her glossy auburn hair have speed-enhancing powers?" Tyler punched the back of her arm in retribution, but he was grinning.

"She's a really capable flyer Si. Real good with the shuttles and skimmers."

"Oh I'm sure, but she's also really capable with hair products and luring you." There followed a short burst of chasing round the cockpit, both being more careful not to crash into the delicate equipment than on each other, which ended with Sisika in the co-pilot's seat again, with Tyler sitting on top of her."Okay, okay, she's just a very capable flyer! A very very capable flyer!" Sisika half laughed half gasped, and Tyler leapt lithely off her, returning to his own seat.

"Don't you have a shuttle to fly or something?" grinned Sisika.

"The beauty of Auto-Pilot, lil' cuz. Don't you have a cruiser to contact?"

"Oh yeah!" she gasped, and grabbed the communit's portable hand-devise and began tapping out a number.

"Oh yeah," mimicked Tyler. "Oh yeah, just a whole cruiser to contact..." He grinned and trailed off, as Sisika said into the mic

"Shuttle Space Bug to main cruiser Space Crab, requesting permission to intercept and engage? Repeat, shuttle Space Bug requesting permission to intercept and engage." There was a moment of static, then a rough male voice spoke through the console.

"This is cruiser Space Crab, granting permission to intercept and engage. Welcome aboard guys!"

Forty minutes later, the Space Bug manovered into one of the cruiser's docking bays, and the vacuum-doors pulled shut behind them. Swishing noises announced the arrival of air, and the pressure-suction around the doors released.

"Hey all, it is my pleasure to announce that we are now safely docked in the Space Bug." Tyler's voice once again played out down the shuttle. "You're welcome to disembark, hope you had a pleasant journey and I'll see you all again at the end of this week when we arrive at Ballybran's Shankill moon base. Have an enjoyable week!" Sisika freed herself of her safety belt, and scooped up her carrisac. As she strode from the shuttle into the main body of the cruiser, accompanied by Tyler, it occurred to her that this would be the last time she would do so as a citizen of Lat'ori. Next time she took a space flight on a cruiser, she would be a member of the Heptite guild of Ballybran.

The following week passed in a blur of new faces, screens full of information about her beloved Ballybran, and evenings spent with Tyler.

When the Space Crab rounded the graceful curve of Shankill a week later, she got her first sight of Ballybran. The rising sun struck its bare face, and shards of light almost blinded her, reflected up from what she guessed were the crystal ranges. The raw, unrestricted beauty of it hit her like a rush of wind, and she could only gaze at the planet as the dawn sunlight reflected off its ranges.

The Bug docked at the moonbase, and she disembarked alongside Tyler in a sort of daze. A sign glowed blue above the archway, telling all who read it that they had now entered a protected zone. Somewhere in the back of Sisika's stunned brain, she realised that she was now on the moon of the planet that would change her life forever.


End file.
